Life at the top: Inside a couple's home in Trump Parc

Couple's 21st-floor Trump Parc apartment is a cozy home with breathtaking views

By Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer

Published
9:07 pm EST, Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saul (left) and Mimi Cohen look out the window of their 3-bedroom, 21st floor apartment in Trump Parc on February 24, 2010. One of the views overlooks Mill River.

Saul (left) and Mimi Cohen look out the window of their 3-bedroom, 21st floor apartment in Trump Parc on February 24, 2010. One of the views overlooks Mill River.

Photo: Kerry Sherck

Photo: Kerry Sherck

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Saul (left) and Mimi Cohen look out the window of their 3-bedroom, 21st floor apartment in Trump Parc on February 24, 2010. One of the views overlooks Mill River.

Saul (left) and Mimi Cohen look out the window of their 3-bedroom, 21st floor apartment in Trump Parc on February 24, 2010. One of the views overlooks Mill River.

Photo: Kerry Sherck

Life at the top: Inside a couple's home in Trump Parc

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STAMFORD -- During the late 1980s, Saul Cohen, the former executive director of Stamford's Jewish Community Center, formed a marketing research company in the basement of his North Stamford residence.

He became, in his words, "one of those people who work from home wearing short pants, with my feet up."

In 1988, he was profiled in The Advocate as part of a growing trend of people working from home.

Now, more than two decades later, he has come full circle: Once again, he is a topic of news, this time as a retired empty nester who has traded in his quiet, rustic surroundings for a glass-enclosed life of urban voyeurism.

Saul, 70, and his wife, Mimi, 66, were among the first families last October to move into Trump Parc, the city's tallest building, which sits at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Broad Street. By all accounts, the transition for the two New York natives has been seamless.

"It felt like home three days after we moved in," Saul said.

As snow drizzled over the city Friday, the couple were comfortably nestled high inside their approximately 2,500-square-foot three-bedroom apartment on the 21st floor, high above the frosty landscape.

Mimi, a former school administrator who grew up in Manhattan, said that she had simply grown tired of the suburbs.

"I grew up in a city where you could just walk to everything," she said. "This is carefree and really wonderful living. Downtown has a lot to offer."

Stamford residents since 1976, there was no question in their minds that they wanted to stay in the city. Because their two children lived in Boston and Philadelphia, the location allowed them to be equidistant to each.

They also had deep roots here. During his years running the Jewish Community Center, trying to make it a social and cultural hub for Jews in the area, Saul was unofficially anointed the "Jewish mayor of Stamford."

Armed with those reasons, they made the leap in 2007. They were one of the first to sign on to the building, which at the time had only floor plans and an architectural model. They decided to combine a one-bedroom with a two-bedroom and wound up paying around $1.8 million.

Then, the housing market spiraled. Friends barraged them with phone calls, warning them that people were pulling out and that Trump Parc might never get built.

In the face of widespread panic, Mimi said that doubt crept into her mind "for about a second." In the end, the couple held fast to their conviction that they had made the right choice.

"We're optimists," Mimi said. "If we were pessimists, we wouldn't have done this."

Saul added, "We have absolutely no regrets."

As for living in a building that is still lonely for more occupants, Mimi defiantly declared: "You know what? We're pioneers. Someone has to be first."

Within a contemporary-styled apartment with marble finishings, they have managed to create a cozy sense of home. Their walls are adorned with artwork that reflect their passions: photos of family members, snapshots from a recent African safari and nostalgic mementos, such as a ceramic mask they bought during one of the Pink Tent Festivals that used to be held in Mill River Park.

The most eye-grabbing feature, however, are the views, which offer a rarely seen vantage point of the city.

Their living room faces south onto the city's West Side, and their field of vision includes the Sound, Long Island and the tip of Manhattan. On clear nights, they see the shimmering lights of the Empire State Building in the distance. Below, the reconstructed and unleashed Mill River gushed with surprising strength.

One especially "serendipitous" discovery, Saul said, has been the sunsets. "We'll stop what we're doing and just come to look at the sunsets."

Fascinated by his new scenic vistas, Saul keeps two sets of binoculars: one on the window sill of the living room and another in the bedroom, where he can watch the treetops of North Stamford ripen and wither through the seasons. He has been trying to identify what he sees. By his bedside, he keeps a map of Stamford that he tore from a phone book.

In many ways, the couple can be pointed to as a vindication of the city's focus on downtown housing as the antidote to making Stamford more livable, green and vibrant.

Close to the library, restaurants and train station, they take the car less, saving gas, Saul said.

Mimi said she liked the heterogeneity.

"It's a lot more of what I grew up with in terms of being part of the greater world," she said.

Though they have stopped working, their lives are busy, filled with various civic, social and personal engagements. They are currently taking a class on films of the 1960s at Norwalk Community College, allowing them to watch movies in the afternoon. "A decadent thing," according to Mimi.

They have also attended the civic forums "Reinventing Stamford," an initiative to foster public ideas about how to make Stamford more competitive. On that front, Saul said he sees one of the keys being enhanced transportation, whether it's more buses or a light rail system.

"They need something to bring people in," he said.

Saul noted that their children, who grew up in Stamford, left for college and settled elsewhere.

On Friday, which happened to be Saul's birthday, they were set to return, bringing their own children in tow.

Coming right before the Jewish holiday of Purim, the weekend seemed guaranteed to be lively and festive.

Saul, who has curly tufts of white hair and beard, said people will often ask him what he does all day now that he is retired.

"I tell them, `I don't know. I don't have time to think about it.' "

Staff writer Elizabeth Kim can be reached at elizabeth.kim@scni.com or 203-964-2265.